Archive of Marcia's Musings July 1-7, 2002Tuesday, July 2, 2002
An Innocent Little Story
This one started evolving late last week but, now that I have a little more information, I can tell you about it. Eight weeks ago, we were contacted by a company for a problem that they wanted us to resolve with their software working with our software. This particular company did not negotiate a document with us at the time of purchase of the software for either the license or maintenance however, they are automatically covered under the "shrinkwrap" license (contained in the box) and the standard form of our maintenance agreement. Neither document has a clause that protects the customer's confidential information so they want us to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement. I asked for the agreement and, at first, they couldn't give me one-- didn't have one and didn't know when they would ever get one. (Well, that's a severe problem when you are requiring one!) When they finally gave me a document, it was a one-way NDA even though we typically "disclose" in the sense of telling them what happened and why it got broken in the first place so that it doesn't happen again. As a result, we wanted a mutual document. It took them approximately three weeks to provide us with a mutual document which I reviewed and made some revisions to before sending back to them.
Six weeks later (late last week), they contacted us to see what the status of the documents were: frankly, I don't remember plus I was in the throes of an end-of-quarter week so I'm not gonna worry about an NDA. I tell them to just send us the one-way document (having forgotten that I already received and reviewed it once prior to this request). The customer responds with a nasty-gram saying that if this is what he's paying for maintenance for... Oh, please-- have you not slept in 6 weeks and as a result, you remember everything you've done? Sorry, I'm human, I tend to forget when something falls off my radar for that long.
So today, I reviewed the one-way NDA that he sent to us and there are severe problems. I called my manager, Judy, and said "Am I nuts or are these problems?" I'm trying to let the document slide through even though I know its not good so I explain the situation and the three big changes that we can't usually live with in the document. "Nope, you're not nuts-- they're bad!!", she sayds. Oh, great-- I get to be the bad guy again. I'm so thrilled-- NOT!!!
So now, I spend the next hour trying to find out where the customer is located and who is working with the customer from the sales side. Come to find out, even though I'm dealing with a lawyer (of some sort) in New Jersey and the main company address is in California, they really are sitting in New Jersey. Would you believe that for New Jersey, we have three sales reps? Wow-- I spent another few minutes trying to track down the right sales rep and then, had to leave a voicemail for him because it is too late to actually speak with him.
One school of thought on this is that they keep dropping it for weeks on end so we won't notice the problems with their document. All I know is that this is not going to be fun and, as I explained to Judy, I do not like being the bad guy. I know that this guy is going to tell me I'm being overly picky but, I can't sign the company up to this document. I'm going to talk with the sales rep in the morning and then, decide what to do and how to approach it from there. I can hardly wait.
So much for the innocent little story, eh?
Other than that . . .
Nothing else has been happening. Packing continues afoot in my absence at work-- my sewing table is gone. Actually, the only thing left in my office is my one desk and the file cabinet. The boxes aren't finished from the closet, etc. but that can wait, I think. If not, Brian'll do it also in my absence. I did tell him to relax a bit tomorrow. He's been going non-stop for at least a couple of weeks. Wayyyyy too much!!
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Me? I'm just chilling-- thanks for coming by and, as always, have a great night!
Monday, July 1, 2002Catch-Up
First of all, if you weren't able to come by over the weekend, I updated my quilting page so you may want to go see that update.
I went to the orthopedic doctor today: I've been released from care!! I've gotta work on my step-downs yet but that'll come with time.
Over the weekend, I finished "Lucky Man". That's the Michael J. Fox book I started reading a short time ago. Fairly well written for one that was self-written by an actor/comedian who didn't graduate high school. (He's since received a GED.) I did find it interesting and a fairly captivating read.
I've just been informed that I have 3,576 files in my website directory. I'm so excited, aren't you? The really weird part? I had 616 page reads as of 7:59pm!!! WOW-- can you say "webcrawler"? (I knew that you could!)
Okay, enough of that, I think.
The Start of Something Weird
This is going to be a very weird month-- there's lots of travel (for us, on a comparative basis) and adventures toward the end of the month sooooo, as I warned last month, the posting here is going to be something less than regular, starting as soon as Wednesday night-- I've got a nail appointment, due to Linda's schedule (and mine).
There is also the huge issue that I'm disorganized and a little stressed these days so if things come out muddled, at least, if I'm not posting, they won't come out muddled here.
Thanks for your patience over the next month or so-- appreciate it and we'll keep this going as much as possible.
As always, thanks for your patronage, your communication and stopping by. Have a nice evening!
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